A Way Out Lets Friends Play Co-Op for Free

By Kyle Sledge 23 May 2018

Following an expletive-laced introduction at The Game Awards 2017, writer, director, and Hazelight Studios founder, Josef Fares, officially unveiled a fresh trailer for the forthcoming action-adventure title, A Way Out, with the footage laying out how the cooperative multiplayer experience will play. Along with the new trailer, it was also announced that fans will have a unique opportunity to play with friends who don’t even own the game, with co-op being free.

As seen in the video below and according to A Way Out‘s publisher, Electronic Arts, a special promotion for the title will allow one game to be completely playable for two different people. In order to make it happen, one person will need to buy the full version of A Way Out when it releases in March of next year, and then invite a friend who has downloaded the trial version of the game to cooperatively play through the entire title for no additional cost.

The “friends pass free trial” as it’s being called will be open to everyone as soon as A Way Out launches, so once the game’s updates have been completed, one player and a friend will be able to take control of either Vincent or Leo, with the two working together in order to break out of prison. Of course, it’s also important to note that an Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus subscription is required to make use of the trial on both Xbox One and PS4, respectively.

All things considered, with A Way Out being designed primarily as a co-op experience, allowing gamers to buy only one copy of the game and then invite another to join in on the fun is a great way to establish goodwill with fans before the title comes out. But while the gesture by EA and Hazelight is definitely one of good faith, it will be interesting to see whether or not the tactic of offering co-op for free in this way will stifle sales, as it could go on to cause many to simply wait until their friend buys A Way Out to play it.

A Way Out is set to launch on March 23, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.